BabyJack

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Our Story

Our story begins almost 23 years ago when I, Kyra, went up to Adam at a Sadie Hawkins Dance in high school and asked him to dance.  We started dating within a year of meeting and became high school sweethearts. We stayed together through college where Adam attended Carnegie Mellon University and I attended University of Pittsburgh. We got engaged, got married, and somehow ended up in Alabama.  We traded the Rust Belt for the Bible Belt.  I began teaching elementary school.  Adam started working in the steel industry which has been embedded in both our families roots for generations.  After living in Alabama for 11 years, we moved to Northern Kentucky outside of Cincinnati for two and a half years.  Our next adventure took us to Utah over a year ago. 

When we found out we were expecting in 2013, we were beyond thrilled! Everything in the pregnancy went perfectly. We enjoyed every second. We picked out names, set up a nursery, had baby showers, and ate way too much Chipotle. We figured there are too few good surprises in life so we never found out the gender. Either way, we thought it was going to be the best day in our lives.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.  After a Friday afternoon check-up, everything was good to go.  They told me to come back on Monday to schedule delivery.  The next day, April 19, 2014, arrived. It was a Saturday morning.  I woke up when Adam arrived home from working night shift and felt the baby kick. A few hours went by and no kicks. We went to the hospital where we were told the baby had no heartbeat. Less than 18 hours after everything was deemed perfect, Jack Petro Zewe was 38 weeks stillborn. Jack was 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 inches long. He looked just like his dad. He had a full head of wavy strawberry blonde hair. He had ten fingers and ten toes. He appeared to be so perfect. 

We will never forget the too few hours we got to hold our lifeless son in our arms and try to memorize every detail about him through our tears.  We now know there is nothing worse in this world than holding your deceased child in your arms.  We often wonder what he would look and be like today. All we have left are the nightmares of leaving the hospital with empty arms and belly, driving home with a vacant car seat, walking into a perfectly set up nursery in our home we would no longer need, and traveling with him to his final resting place to our home state of Pennsylvania.  When we are at home visiting, each day and holiday begins in the cemetery to see our baby boy as well as Adam's young sister.  At a young age, we quickly learned how unfair life can be at times. 

In September 2015, we were beyond blessed with a happy and healthy baby boy! We named him Luke Adam. In February 2018, we welcomed another baby boy named Noah Matthew.  Then, in February 2021, we welcomed our final baby boy, Will Ethan.  We stayed true to our tradition and we didn’t find out the gender with any pregnancy.  We know they will never replace Jack, but they sure help our wounds to be smaller and the boys are the brightest stars in our lives. We are blessed that Jack helped send us all of our amazing boys. We know that they will always have their older brother as their guardian angel watching over them. It makes us sad at times that they will never get a chance to share this life as a band of brothers and best friends.  We would give up everything to have all four of them running around the house and raising unimaginable havoc together.

We were honored to be the Ambassadors for North Alabama in 2019.  This year we will be participating again for our ninth year in a row.  Stillbirth happens in the U.S. once every 20 minutes. It is unfathomable to think that three times every single hour in the U.S. that there are parents going through what we experienced. During the pregnancy, we didn't have a single signal that we would lose Jack.  Losing our son was medically unexplainable.  We felt like we tripped at the finish line being so close to our due date. We will never know what happened to our baby boy in this life, but we have hope we will see him again one day.  There isn't an event near our home in Utah, so we will be raising it for North Alabama where he was born in memory of his 10th birthday.  Please join the cause with March of Dimes to help reduce the occurrence of stillbirths and prevent other families from experiencing similar loss.  We never gave up hope, and now we have been blessed with three more healthy boys.

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WE NEED TO UNITE, CONNECT AND FIGHT FOR FAMILIES

With preterm birth rates continuing to rise, the U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth, especially for women and babies of color.

At March for Babies: A Mother of a Movement you're lifting up communities, creating connections and taking action to make America a more equitable place and ensure that every mom and baby is healthy.

Together, we’re marching to raise funds and awareness to transform the health of all families!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!


$500
Fundraising goal: $1,000
46 days
left until the experience!
Saturday, May 04, 2024
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